October 14, 2014 - 6:27am
Help a Newbie making their first ever bread...please :-)
Hi,
I have never made my own bread.
I'd like to try an artisan style bread but I was hoping that you could help me with a thoroughly tried and tested recipe.
I hvae no idea what flours I will need, yeast or even at what tempreature it should be baked. I'm eager to learn and start making some lovely home made bread for my family :-)
I love bread but mostly those that are not fully white nor fully wholemeal. A bit like half way in between.
Any advice, tips, recipes are welcome :-)
I should probably stat with something easy and then do the more trickier ones as I get experience.
Thank you again!
Crunchy
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You don't need to be an expert to bake some delicious bread, but there is a learning process and it takes some experimenting to get it the way you like it. There is just so much to learn. I recommend you start a the "Lessons" section of this site for some very simple recipes and tips.
Happy baking!
Pablo
Thank you Pablo!
Where could I find the "Lessons" section, please?
C
I have just found it :-)
C
I guess I'm from the "buy a book" generation, rather than "Google/YouTube it", for learning to do anything well that has nuance and detail. Ken Forkish's "Flour Water Salt Yeast" is a great book to start out with. Not that the Fresh Loaf lessons are a bad place. But it's nice to have a full, cover-to-cover pitch by an expert. Forkish's book has been well received by both experts and newbies. Lately I've had occasion to make a commercial yeasted 40% whole wheat version of what I think he calls in the book 'Harvest Bread with Poolish' (I don't have the book in front of me right now). It's incredibly simple and is knocking our socks off for how satisfying it is for a commercial yeast bread in a household supposedly addicted to naturally leavened ("sourdough") breads.
Have fun and bon apetit!
Tom
I have loved the breads made from his book. Click on books up top and you can order it right now.
I'm a fan of the Forkish book, but I would argue it's too advanced for a rank beginner. I would suggest maybe getting "Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day" from your library, and seeing what it has to offer -- simplicity, written for first-time bakers, etc. (No connection to book, don't even own it.) Then, if you get into it, move on to the Peter Reinhart books, then Forkish. (Forkish is not foolproof, calls for some equipment that you may not have, and has way too much waste in his sourdough build, as has been discussed on TFL in the past.)
My first successful loaf of bread was the Tartine Basic Country Loaf. I knew, going into it, that I wanted to make that bread and that it required me to buy a lodge combo cooker. No big deal. That was and is, an awesome bread and for me, it was not difficult to bake when following the instructions.
I don't think Forkish is more complicated. The equipment is the same -- a combo cooker or dutch oven. He also mixes things in cambro containers. Obviously you don't need to buy containers if you already have something to hold the dough -- however, I like the cambro containers quite a bit because it lets me easily determine if my dough has doubled or tripled in size.
I would not start with 5 minute a day bread, since I do not believe excellent bread can be made that way, and as long as you are in for a penny, might as well go in for a pound and make great breads the way the masters make them.
Sure both Forkish and Robertson "waste" starter/levain. But it doesn't take long before you realize that you don't need to make so much of something when you are only using half of it in the final dough, and it is easy enough to make less of something.
To the OP -- keep it as simple as you can. You don't need to make any investments in Cambro containers or a special piece of cookware to bake your first loaf.
I would suggest a simple white or whole wheat pan loaf. Lots of recipes online that will work. Then, when you get a feel for the process, you can move on to artisan loaves. Expect some occasional frustrations with your first loaves, but don't get discouraged.
Here's to the many years of bread-baking joy coming your way!
Forkish's book was the one that gave me confidence to really play with temperature, time, humidity, etc. It also encouraged me to explore wild yeast, which I'm having a ton of fun with. I completely recommend, even for a newbie.
While I agree that FWSY is a nice book, I have to disagree that the high hydration (really wet) doughs are a good place to start. Of course if you are looking for a great book on using a dutch oven to make beautiful dark breads then of course Forkish is a fantastic book. Personally I recommend starting with something easier like Reinhart's Artisan Bread's Every Day or Crust and Crumb. Or even Hitz's Baking Artisan Bread book. I recommend going to the library and see what there is available.
BTW, for yeast I recommend instant yeast. See if you can find the 1 lb bag of SAF as it is MUCH cheaper than getting packets or jars. If not, then try to avoid the rapid-rise yeast (bread machine yeast is fine). I don't like to use active-dry either because I am too lazy to soak it in water and like more control over the water temperature too.
Other recommendations are to get a scale as this will make everything much more consistent and easier!!! An instant read thermometer is good to have too.
I guess I am indeed of the google/yootube it generation. Most of what I know about bread comes from there and a lot of experimenting. I don't think I have ever actually followed a full recipe that's not my own. That's just the way I learn. The one book that changed the way I see and bake bread (and probably my life) is Dan Wing's The Bread Builders, it's not a recipe book, it is more theoretical; but if you ever want to dive into the theory of what makes a good artisan hearth loaf (and maybe some day build yourself a masonry oven) that would be my recommendation.
You can reinvent anything you please, if you have the time and desire to do so. i bet most of the great chefs of the world went to school learn there trade and followed numerous recipes while learning their craft.
I also expect your breads would come out better faster if you first followed a proven formula and process. Again, if you enjoy learning from failure and don't get frustrated by slow progress toward a baking goal, that is one thing. But anybody asking for help making their first bread isn't likely to be in that path. :)
I didn't mean to reinvent anything, of course I learn from others and it's true that if your are serious about something, books are the best way to go, and even lessons and courses if you have acces to them. I just meant that sometimes it's easier for me to look at many recipes, videos, some theory, digest it, and then see what I can do with that knowledge. It is more frustrating when I try to follow a recipe and the result doesn't come out as pretty as in the picture in the book, whether it's because my oven is old and cheap, my kitchen is too hot, I can't find the correct ingredients, or I just don't have the skills. Also, if I experiment and fail, I can compare my recipe with another proven recipe and have a better idea of what went wrong, but if I fail trying to follow a supposedly proven recipe, I have no idea what went wrong and I have no choice but to repeat and hope it magically comes out better next time. You learn a lot of flexibility from the beginning this way, which I think is also important. But you are also correct in that it requires more patience and tolerance.
The very best, for me, would be to bake with some one else, some experienced baker who makes the kind of bread I like, whether professinaly or not, but I´ve never had the chance.
The way I see it, if you are interested in baking bread for yourself and close friends and familly, you'll want to make a bread that you can call you own. And it's way more fun ;)